10-year sentence for Swede convicted of 'online' rape

Copenhagen, Denmark - A court in Sweden has sentenced a Swedish man to 10 years in prison for coercing teenagers in Canada, Britain and the United States to perform sexual acts in front of webcams by threatening them or their families.

The Uppsala City Court said Thursday that Bjorn Samstrom was guilty of online sexual offenses against 27 children between 2015 and early 2017. The 41-year-old had threatened to post photos of his victims on porn sites or kill their relatives unless they performed sexual acts as he watched in Sweden.

It was the first time in Sweden that a person had been convicted of rape when the sexual assaults took place over the internet.

Under Swedish law rape doesn't have to involve intercourse. It can be another act that's considered equally violating.